Starbucks Registers Down in Widespread Outage

Large parts of the United States and Canada are being afflicted by a coffee shortage as a result of a crash to Starbucks’s computer systems.

The caffeine crisis began on Tuesday morning and, as of 2 p.m. ET, remained unresolved. The company has acknowledged the problem, saying it is the result of troubles with a software update, not hacking.

A Starbucks spokesperson said the problem came about as a result of a “technology update” to store registers and that a limited number of the country’s 14,000 North American locations are affected.

The Starbucks spokesperson said there is no formal free coffee policy but that individual locations are responding as they see fit to “make it right” for customers. Starbucks’s official Twitter account has yet to issue an official statement, but has issued numerous replies to individual customers:

@Ang_Pavlova We apologize for the inconvenience, but we’re so glad we could make it right!